Will Trump Sell Out His Base for a Border Wall Fantasy?

Jermaine Castillo

President Donald Trump met with a bipartisan group of Congress members at the White House on Tuesday in an effort to revive stalled talks over immigration, urging lawmakers to pass a "bill of love" to protect some undocumented immigrants from deportation.

It was an freaky scene: For around an hour, cameras rolled as Trump moderated a conversation between Democrats and Republicans from both chambers of Congress on DACA - Trump's repeal of which has left almost 800,000 young people at risk of deportation - border security and so-called "chain migration" (this administration's term for existing family-based advantages for prospective immigrants).

The President at times suggested he would be looking to sign everything from a stand-alone fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program - set to expire in March - to comprehensive immigration reform, often appearing to being guided by lawmakers in the room to modify his positions.

The immigration negotiations are part of a broader series of talks over issues ranging from funding the federal government through next September to renewing a children's health insurance program and giving USA territories and states additional aid for rebuilding following last year's hurricanes and wildfires.

Trump announced in September his plans to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but he gave lawmakers a six-month window to pass a legislative deal before the temporary work permits begin to expire at a rate of almost 1,000 per day.

A compromise - with protection for the young immigrants, often called Dreamers by their advocates, and some enhanced border security, without construction of the wall - could eventually be reached.

Trump has been anything but clear on what he'll accept, even on his signature wall. "We really want to work it out", Mr Trump said ahead of a meeting with Republican senators.

President Donald J. Trump just concluded a successful bipartisan and bicameral meeting on immigration reform. "So I think the Democrats have more to lose politically if they draw too hard of a line".

Top congressional leaders did not attend the hour-long meeting. That is, Trump needs Democrats to support this measure. Instead of students paying 12%, we could go back to the days where they paid 1 to 2 to 3%, and I know that, because my first year of college my student loans were at 2.7% from the federal government. "And we are going to build the wall", the president said Monday at an event in Knoxville, Tennessee.

While the government-contracted wall prototypes have risen near the border in San Diego, the Trump administration has so far not made significant progress on the much larger - and costlier - undertaking of funding and constructing a border wall.

The discussions on immigration were taking place in the aftermath of the president's public blow-up with former campaign and White House adviser Steve Bannon, one of the architects of Trump's calls for a border wall along the U.S. Southern border. He told reporters Saturday at Camp David that any deal must include an overhaul of the family-based immigration system as well as an end to the diversity visa lottery, which draws immigrants from under-represented parts of a world.

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